September 23, 2024 Breakfast - Pancake House? Lunch - Botin.
Today we ate breakfast and lunch and no dinner. We walked across the street to the Pancake House that featured an American Breakfast and I ordered a 2-2-2 breakfast that I thought would include two pancakes, two slices of bacon, and two eggs sunny side up. Instead it came with two pieces of toast. Since I wanted pancakes, I ordered an order of three pancakes and did not eat the toast. I also ordered a glass of fresh orange juice and Suzette ordered coffee.
We then took a taxi to the antique store area, but most stores were closed on Monday, so we walked to Botin, stopping to buy a yogurt because my stomach was upset.
We arrived at Botin at 1:00 and sat at a bar next door and Suzette had a Zarra Vermouth, because we had a 1:30 reservation. Botin is the oldest continuously operated restaurant in the world. It opened in 1725. The building is ancient. There are dining rooms on three floors. In our opinion it has become somewhat of a tourist trap, but the main dishes are good and not terribly expensive and the service is impeccable. Billy joined us at 1:30. We decided to order two roast suckling pigs, a roasted lamb shoulder, artichokes from a can that were terrible, and Gazpacho that was fabulous. I shared the gazpacho with Suzette. It was a creamy gazpacho with emulsified bread, tomatoes, pepper, cucumber, and olive oil that was garnished with cubes of each of those ingredients selected by the diner and served by the waiter. We loved it.
The roast suckling pig was also very good with a crisp skin that was edible and with exceedingly tender tender meat. Billy and Elaine gave me the tiny riblets that were delicious. The lamb was a bit of a disappointment. It was well cooked and served in its cooking juice, but it was stringy and difficult to eat. We chose a good moderately priced 2017 red Rioja Reserva named Pomel that was quite nice but tasted tight, so we asked for a decanter that took about twenty minutes to arrive. The wine was good when it opened up after about thirty minutes, but not even close to the 2001 we drank yesterday.
We could not finish, so we filled a Caja a Llevar with some meat and Billy ordered a cafe con Leche and a creme caramel flan with whipped cream for dessert.
After lunch Billy and I went upstairs to the third floor to see the historic dining room with its wood beamed ceiling and historic plaque on the wall.
After lunch we returned to our hotels and rested until 6:15 when we met Billy again and taxied to the Reina Sophia Art Museum and waited for it to open for free at 7:00. We saw Guernica and lots of early Dalis, Picasso’s sketches for Guernica, many other Spanish artists’ works exhibited in the Spanish Pavilion at the 1937 Paris International Exhibition and many of the Republican posters created for the Spanish Civil War in 1937.
By 8:00 I was spent and Billy had seen enough so we exited and sat and enjoyed drinks at the cafeteria in the Museum.
We then taxied back to Billy’s hotel and walked around the Plaza de Pedro Zerolo which Billy’s hotel faces and noticed a roof top bar on his hotel so we went to the bar on the 8th floor and enjoyed a drink until 10:00 when we said goodnight and returned to our hotel.
Tomorrow morning we will meet Billy for breakfast and then tour the Sorolla Museum.
Bon Appetit
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